Wouldn't it be better to join the celebrations with the vast Hindu majority while at the same time criticising Mr Modi/BJP/RSS for politicising it? notes Shekhar Gupta.
Known for making controversial remarks, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan outdid himself when he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Lahore at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif last December. Sharat Pradhan/ Rediff.com reports from Lucknow.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Friday stressed that the party would fight the Rajasthan assembly polls "unitedly" and said that a decision on who would lead the next government would be taken by the high command after consultations with the newly-elected MLAs.
The swearing-in ceremony may take place on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states likely to attend the event, he said.
'The belief that FDI will shift from China appears to be a strategy of politicians to keep the media busy, chasing irrelevant news to ward off pressure and questions about the government's plans to deal with COVID,' observes Debashis Basu.
'The fire burning on the streets because of BJP's hateful politics will not light up homes'
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
"Food is a personal choice, but at the same time there are certain restrictions in the Constitution," he said.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of intentionally raking up communal issues ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday asked the people not to fall in its "trap".
As CM, he took decisions that confirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot. Early in the first term, he banned illegal slaughterhouses and the state police cracked down on cow slaughter. But the menace of stray cattle created disquiet among farmers, presenting the Adityanath government with a new challenge.
'India's reputation is not and cannot be dependent on the whimsical opinions of some obscure foreign advisory committee packed with Hindu-phobic acolytes,' declares Vivek Gumaste.
"The game is not yet over. Even parties like the Samajwadi Party, which lost the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, has more MLAs than it had last time," she said.
The officer, Dr Seema, said she had gone to the village on the directions of the DPRO to review developmental works.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
'As long as Amul was coming in with products it was not a problem because it was something value added and with a shelf life.' 'When it gets into the local market by procuring locally, it cuts into the market-share of local cooperatives.'
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday warned the Bharatiya Janata Party not to 'provoke' the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, saying it will not be able to 'bear the consequences' and that his party also knows 'all types of politics', escalating his attack on the saffron party after the arrest of his cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji.
Days after Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari wrote a letter for convening a special session of the state assembly against the backdrop of the Sakinaka rape and murder, chief minster Uddhav Thackeray has hit back saying Koshyari should request the Centre to call a session of Parliament to discuss issues concerning the safety of women and growing attacks on them.
'It is obvious that this is both illegal and unconstitutional.'
The PM also made a veiled attack on the Congress referring to corruption in purchase of helicopter, aircraft, guns and cooking gas subsidy.
Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have announced loan waivers for farmers, while Maharashtra has not despite Opposition pressure. Sanjeeb Mukherjee reports.
The top guns of all the major political parties were on a campaign blitz across the state in the past few days, even as the ruling BJP has been striving to break the 38-year-old pattern of alternating governments and retain its southern citadel.
The Congress leader told reporters that the Punjab government is 'preparing to challenge the Bills in the apex court on two counts'. "First, it is a state subject and the Union government has no right to enact a legislation on it. "Besides, the federal government cannot destroy the economy of states. Due to the Bills, losses will be too much for a small state like Punjab," he said.
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress chief, however, said he was not expecting any cooperation from the prime minister and the BJP-led central government for the development of Wayanad and Kerala.
For the government to meet its GST roll-out deadline of April 1, 2017, the states will have to ratify the Bill before Parliament's winter session, starting November.
'The upper castes think Dalits get reservation while they are deprived of it'
The Trinamool Congress supremo said at an election meeting at Bhabanipur where she is contesting by-polls to be held on September 30, that she had been invited to Rome in the first week of October to attend a global peace meeting in which the Pope, other religious heads, dignitaries from various countries are slated to attend, where she would have been the only Indian and 'only Hindu lady'.
As controversy grew, BJP leaders, actors also joined the discourse against him.
In the wake of several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states using bulldozers to raze the houses of persons accused of being involved in criminal activities, senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Indresh Kumar on Wednesday said this action was not targeted at any particular community, but against those involved in some crime.
The party's CM choice came as a surprise for many as the low-profile, first-time legislator was not seen to be among the top contenders for the post.
'The wife will not only abuse her husband for giving her less money, but also abuse the government.' 'Look at the price of a cooking gas cylinder, it is Rs 1,200.'
The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party chief asserted he did not break any law. He hit back at the AAP for raising the issue to "divert attention" of media from allegations of corruption against its MLA Prakash Jarwal who is currently behind the bars.
'It's like the BJP is mocking people: Do what you want, we'll still win.'
Rupani claimed that the state government had taken 'prompt action' in the incident as all the main culprits were arrested the next day.
The PM is seen as slipping up in confidence levels as aired by his 'exposure' of the BRS on a crucial issue as alliance negotiations, which is not done under normal circumstances, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
In a discussion in Lok Sabha on the COVID pandemic, members called for ban on international flights in view of the outbreak of the Omicron strain and demanded that the government 'accept responsibility' for deaths of lakhs of people during the outbreak.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Modi leadership could lose Election 2024 if a communal flare-up becomes cause for all-round catastrophe, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the Modi government's decision to impose the lockdown has ensured that India suffered much less than countries like the United States, France and Spain.
